When lightning strikes twice
by Sapphire1112
Summary: One shot. Steph Sims visits the ED from prison again. Strachamp. I do not own the characters.


Connie gingerly sat up from the position she landed in, on her stomach. It was hazy. _Everything_ was hazy. The smell of blood and leaking petrol were ripe. Though her hands were no longer bound the semi-broken handcuffs hung from one wrist, whilst the other wrist, drooped of it's own accord, - painful, swollen and useless for the time being. Her shoulder on the same side was out again and her new car - new since last summer, lay on it's roof, burning. _Another_ _write_ - _off_.

It was _exactly_ like her re-occurring nightmare - except this time it was reality again. The one difference - the only _good_ thing about this whole sorry mess, was that Grace wasn't a part of it this time. Instead, the other woman - the one driving this time, lay a few metres away from the wreckage of the car - on the other side to Connie. The woman who caused the original crash had struck again. Steph Sims had been determined to make Connie pay.

"What's going on?" Sam inquired of Charlie.

"You know Steph Sims was brought in from prison again?" He started.

"Yeah, I spoke to Connie about it earlier - she said she was ok about it, but she promised to stay away from Steph anyway." Sam paused. " _Why_? What's happened, Charlie?"

"Steph appears to have knocked out her prison guard and escaped." He sighed. "And no one has _seen_ Connie or appears to know where she is. Her mobiles in her office. Noel and Max are checking hospital CCTV."

Elle suddenly came charging in from the car park. " _Her car has gone_...Connie's car has gone."

Sam stared at her. Surely, she hadn't. Connie must have _completely_ lost it if she'd driven off with Steph. No, it wasn't possible. "She _wouldn't_. Connie just _wouldn't'_." He stammered, indignantly.

"I don't think she has." Max remarked. "Look, on the car park CCTV. Steph makes Connie get in the _passenger_ side of her car. Look Connie's handcuffed."

"Oh, god, no!" Sam exclaimed, covering his face.

"Where's the guard? Is she conscious?" Elle asked as Dylan appeared next to her.

"The police are on the way. The guard's ok. She said that Steph was ranting about making Connie pay earlier and just before she knocked her out, the guard heard Steph say something along the lines of: 'She was supposed to die before and now she had to finish what she started'."

Sam looked up. "The crash site. Steph's going to drive them into the ravine again. If Connie's handcuffed, she's got _no_ _chance_! _Ambulance_ \- we need an ambulance to the crash site."

Dylan gestured to Elle. "Can you organise that? Sam and I will go now."

"Grace! I'm meant to pick her up from school." Sam retorted grabbing his coat.

Charlie shook his head. "I'll get her Sam. Just go - go and save her mum."

"Come on, it's this way." Dylan shouted behind him, as they made their way down the embankment to where Connie's car lay on its roof, having exploded from the petrol leak. They found they two women next to each other. If the scruff marks were anything to go by, Connie had dragged herself over to Steph and attempted to treat her, before being overcome by her own pain and collapsing.

Sam and Dylan rushed over and dropped down next to them. "Connie? Connie?" The former examined her anxiously, as Dylan examined Steph.

"Mm, Sam?" Connie mumbled. "Shoulder...out...can't...put...it...back" She sat up slowly - with great difficulty.

"Easy, Con. You shouldn't move, darling - you could have a spinal injury." Sam tried to stop her - without success.

"Shoulder...back...in...please" Connie repeated.

Dylan looked up. "She crawled from over there with her shoulder out? _How the hell...?!_ "

Sam shook his head. "Not a clue, Dylan. She's as stubborn as a mule when she wants to be."

"Had...to...help...Steph" Connie gasped. " _Argh_!" She screamed as Sam put her shoulder back and fell against him sobbing.

"Alright, sweetheart, ok. it's back in." he soothed her. "I think her wrist's broken as well." He added to Dylan, examining her hand.

They heard sirens growing louder and the ambulance arrived.

"No. Help _Steph_!" Connie resisted Iain and Jez's attempts to help her. " _Steph_ _first_."

Dylan moved out of the way to let Iain and Jez in by Steph. He crouched down next to Connie instead. "Connie, listen to me. Iain and Jez are helping Steph, so you're going to let me and Sam help you, ok?" He told her firmly.

"Ok" She muttered.

"I don't _believe_ this!" Dylan exclaimed as he examined her. "She's got _almost_ exactly the same injuries she had last time."

" _What_?" Connie wailed hysterically. This was almost exactly her nightmare.

"Ssh, ssh" Sam tried to calmed her down.

Iain glanced over. "We need to get Connie to hospital - otherwise she's going to do herself _more_ damage. There's another ambalance on the way for Steph."

Sam nodded and Jez brought over the spinal board.

" _No_." Connie tried to push them away. _"Get away from me! No!"_

"Ssh. Darling, you have to let us help you." Sam said softly, refusing to let her push him away, but Connie was hysterical still.

" _No. Don't put her in the helicopter_." She cry out. " _Please don't_."

It suddenly occurred to Sam why she was _so_ upset. This must be like a repetition of the original accident to her. "Ssh, it's ok, Con. She's not going in the helicopter."He glanced at Dylan as he and Jez placed Connie on the spinal boar. She was still trying to fight them off.

"Connie, Iain and I are going to stay here. I promise you, I will _not_ let her go in the helicopter, ok? Now go to the hospital with Sam and Jez."Dylan told her.

"Where's Dad?" Grace asked Charlie as they got in his car.

"Urm...I don't want to worry you, Sweetheart, but your mum has been in an accident. Your Dad went to the crash site." Charlie explained, calmly.

" _What_? You mean a _car crash_?" Grace shook her head. "Oh no. Mum must be _terrified_. I'm glad Dad is with her."

Grace and Charlie were waiting by reception when the ambulance arrived. Charlie had tried to get her to wait in Connie's office - wanting to protect the 11 year-old from seeing her mother like that, but Grace had _insisted_ that she needed to be there for her mum when she arrived.

"This is Connie Beauchamp, mid forties. She was in a high speed car crash where the car left the road and fell into a ravine." Jez told Elle, echoing a year earlier. "Loss of blood from a head injury, broken wrist, dislocated shoulder which Sam corrected at the scene and possible torn liver."

"You're ok, sweetheart, you're going to be fine." Sam muttered holding Connie's hand and walking next to her.

"Mum! Dad!"

"Gracie" Connie tried to remove her oxygen mask.

"No. Connie. You need to keep that on." Elle told her off.

Sam glanced at Grace. "Mum will be fine, sweetheart."

"I know she will." Grace answered. "It's ok, Dad. Go with her. Don't worry. Mum's the _strongest_ person I know."

"Yes she is." Sam agreed. "Did you hear that, Con? You're the strongest person we know."

"She _broke_ her wrist trying to get out of the handcuffs, when they left the road, Charlie."

"I know Sam" Charlie nodded and they both look around to see Grace coming back with Duffy, having been to get a drink. "I'm sorry, Sam. I _tried_ to get Grace to stay in Connie's office when they brought her in - I know you didn't want her to see her mum like that, but she refused - she can be _so_ stubborn!"

"Here you go, Dad." Grace pushed a cup of coffee into his hand and he sighed. fondly, wrapping his arms around her.

"She certainly can" He answered Charlie. "She's the _split_ of her mother, this one - right down to the _stubbornness_!"

Grace giggled slightly - delighted to be compared with Connie. "How is Mum?"

Sam absent-mindedly rearranged Grace's plait. "Your mum's going to be fine."

"But she's coming to stay with us for a bit, right? So we can look after her."

"Mm-hm" He nodded. "But I have to talk to her first, ok, darling? She doesn't _know_ she's coming back with us yet."

Grace gave an amused snort. "Like she's going to say 'No'!" She retorted. "What about Steph?"

" _What_?" He glanced at her and hesitated. "She's going to be ok too."

"I saw them bring her in and I worked it out, Dad." Grace told Sam calmly. " The car crash Mum was in was like the one last summer and it's a bit of a coincidence that Steph was brought in after a car crash too." She explained. " I heard Dylan say earlier that Mum _wasn't_ the one driving... Steph tried to kill mum, didn't she? Like before." She added.

Sam sighed, "Yes, she did. But she _didn't manage_ , thankfully."

" _Of course_ she didn't." Grace answered brightly. "I _told you_ \- Mum's the strongest person I know."

Sam smiled. "Mm-hm, shall we go and see her? She's out of surgery and should be awake soon."

"mm, Sam? Gracie?"

"Hi darling... _careful_ , Grace." Sam added as Grace leaned over excitedly to give Connie a hug.

"Mum!"

"How are you feeling, Con?" Sam asked, kissing her head lightly. "You gave us quite a scare there."

"Speak for yourself, Dad!" Grace retorted. "I _knew_ she'd be ok. _I told you she's_..."

"... _the strongest person you know!_ Yes Grace, I _think_ you mentioned it." Sam rolled his eyes. "Ok, well you gave _me_ quite a scare." Connie giggled slightly as Sam repeated his question. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Er...like I've been in a _car crash_..." She commented. "So, what's the damage?"

"Head injury, broken wrist, shoulder dislocation and they had to repair your liver... _again_." Sam told her. "When you get discharged, you're coming home with us, ok? So I can look after you."

"Ok." Connie agreed.

Grace gave her another delighted hug. " _Told you_ she wouldn't say 'no'!"

Connie patted her back and looked at Sam. "Steph?"

"She's going to be ok, Con. I think she's going into a secure unit this time, though." He squeezed her hand. "You've been awfully _forgiving_ , darling, considering everything."

Connie shrugged slightly - then winced because it made her shoulder hurt. "I'm a _doctor_ , Sam. Saving people is what I do."

"You're the _best_ , mum!" Grace hugged her again - and this time Sam hugged them both.


End file.
